Kidero faults IEBC on plan to allow inmates vote for president

Nairobi County Governor Dr Evans Kidero has urged inmates who registered as voters to exercise their civic duty and vote in the August General Elections.

Dr Kidero also advised the inmates to vote in leaders who would bring change to their lives.

“I would like to remind you that it is your civic duty to cast your votes in the August 8 elections and I urge you to only vote in leaders who mean well for your future,” said Dr Kidero on Saturday at Nairobi West Prison.

He told the inmates to embrace change and good social behaviour within and outside the prison gates and be ambassadors of good morals upon their release from the correctional facility.

COUNTING DAYS

“Most of you here are counting days to their release and not the days they have been in prison. I would like to remind you to be agents of change and good morals in the society upon your release,” he said.

The governor castigated the move by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to only enlist the inmates as diaspora voters, who will only vote for the presidential candidates during the August polls. He termed the decision an insult on their rights to civic liberty.

He said the move would deny the inmates the chance to vote Members of County Assemblies, Woman Representatives, Members of Parliament, Senators and Governors.

“The inmates want to vote as other Kenyans and not as those in diaspora. They need to be allowed to vote from MCA through to the President,” he said.

Dr Kidero added that Nairobi County was in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the prisons department on rehabilitation and repair works of schools, dispensaries, hospitals and some of estates in the county.